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Yard Greetings Unlimited has signs to suit any occasion or event

Heidi McLaughlin decided that a national economic crisis wouldn't stop her from launching a business renting yard signs commemorating occasions from homecomings and birthdays to anniversaries and business events.

“My feeling was: 'OK, I'm not going to be a victim of the economy,'” McLaughlin said of her decision to open Yard Greetings Unlimited. “'If I can get it established in bad times, imagine how well it would do in good times.'”

The Bonsall resident makes the 4-foot-by-8-foot signs in a garage workshop, customizing them with special greetings and colorful pennants before loading them into her truck for delivery.

She charges $59.95 for a two-day rental, plus a delivery fee of $10 to $20, depending on gas prices and distance.

“It's more fun and different than just mailing a greeting card,” she said.

The signs are made from sheets of light plastic stabilized with plastic frames and anchored in large wooden blocks. The plastic sheets are 3 to 4 millimeters thick, and each sign weighs 7 to 10 pounds.

“These are big and fun,” McLaughlin said. “You can't miss it.”

McLaughlin, 49, is from Orange County and graduated from California State University Fullerton in 1982 with a journalism degree. She did communications work for a Lake Forest veterinary hospital before leaving to raise her three sons.

In 2005, McLaughlin and her husband, Pete, moved to Bonsall in search of a country lifestyle and room to enjoy their horses, she said. Pete McLaughlin, 58, heads a Kentucky-based biotech company.

McLaughlin said she got the idea for Yard Greetings Unlimited while in Texas attending a family reunion last summer. A sister-in-law had ordered a large sign to celebrate a family member's 60th birthday.

“I thought, 'Hmmm, good idea,'” McLaughlin said.

Back in Bonsall, she brainstormed for her own graphic-design ideas and began experimenting with structural designs. She decided against welding steel support structures in favor of lighter frames made from less-expensive plastic piping, testing out designs in her yard.

“We were engineering these signs to be able to withstand wind and weather,” McLaughlin said.

Bonsall resident Donna Kovner has rented an anniversary sign and birthday signs from Yard Greetings Unlimited. Her 6-year-old twin nephews and 4-year-old nephew were so delighted with their sign that they asked their mother to make them a picnic lunch that they could eat beneath it, Kovner said.

“It is a great idea, and it's not that expensive,” Kovner said. “I thought it was extremely reasonable for the sign and the two days that you have it up there.”

Although McLaughlin originally intended to create signs for personal celebrations, about half her customers are business owners, she said. Some signs are crossovers – for example, real estate agents can use a “Welcome Home” sign to entice home buyers. Other signs are more directly commerce-related, including those advertising upcoming sales.

Customers can place orders for next-day delivery most of the time, McLaughlin said, although she recommends booking a week in advance around holidays. She accepts special requests such as nighttime delivery so that recipients can be surprised with a sign in the morning.

Homeowners and business owners are responsible for ensuring that signs meet city ordinances or homeowners association guidelines, McLaughlin said.

Yard Greetings Unlimited rents out about 10 signs per week, mainly through referrals and online orders, McLaughlin said. She said she would like to double that volume this year, perhaps by creating partnerships with party supply and rental companies.